


When I Come Around

by islndgurl777



Series: give michael guerin a friend 2k19 (make that friend maria deluca) [15]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 19:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18976876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islndgurl777/pseuds/islndgurl777
Summary: Michael strides over and raises an eyebrow in question at Alex, who is rubbing Valenti’s back soothingly. Alex frowns as he looks down at his watch and says, “I’m sorry. I lost track of time and forgot to text you.”Michael shrugs and waves him off. “What’s going on, Valenti?” he says, tone long-suffering, but he sits down on the ground so he can meet Kyle’s eyes.Valenti groans and shakes his head. “Your brother is a menace, and Liz is a menace. Together, they’re a nightmare.”“Ah,” he says, grinning. “They finally asked you out, huh?”





	When I Come Around

**Author's Note:**

> This took me two weeks to write because Kyle and Michael do not want to interact without the presence of Liz or Alex. It took me ages to figure out how to get them to bond on their own, and even then, it was pretty bad until larenoz saved my bacon and made a really great suggestion about what they could bond over.
> 
> There is one Avengers: Endgame spoiler, if you haven't seen it yet.
> 
> Title from Green Day.

The night they’re supposed to have their third date, Michael shows up at Alex’s to find him and Valenti cozying up on the porch swing together. Fucking great.

 

Daisy jumps out of the truck behind him as he’s getting out and bolts immediately for Valenti, barking like mad until she jumps into his lap and he wraps himself around her. “What’re you doing here, Daze?” he says as he buries his head in her neck. 

 

Michael strides over and raises an eyebrow in question at Alex, who is rubbing Valenti’s back soothingly. Alex frowns as he looks down at his watch and says, “I’m sorry. I lost track of time and forgot to text you.”

 

Michael shrugs and waves him off. “What’s going on, Valenti?” he says, tone long-suffering, but he sits down on the ground so he can meet Kyle’s eyes.

 

Valenti groans and shakes his head. “Your brother is a menace, and Liz is a menace. Together, they’re a nightmare.”

 

“Ah,” he says, grinning. “They finally asked you out, huh?”

 

Valenti groans again and hides his eyes in Daisy’s fur. Alex’s eyebrows raise in surprise and he says, “You knew about this?”

 

Michael shrugs. “Max and I had a bi awakening-type talk a while back, then he told me and Iz a couple weeks ago that they were going to ask Valenti out. That’s about it.”

 

Kyle turns his face so he can glare at Michael while still nuzzling Daisy. “Thanks for the warning. I know we’re not exactly besties, but I would have liked to have known I was walking into a seduction when I went over for dinner tonight.”

 

Michael’s eyebrows shoot up. “A seduction? Max? Bullshit.”

 

Alex coughs quietly, drawing Michael’s gaze to his small smile, but before he can say anything Kyle blurts, somewhat hysterically, “He was wearing his uniform!”

 

Michael rears back, nose scrunching in disgust. “Oh God, don’t...”

 

But Kyle keeps going. “His ass was on display in those pants! And his shoulders and back, tapering down to that waist?! I don’t even have a uniform kink!”

 

Michael groans and covers his ears with his hands, half burying his face in his raised knees. “Stop, please.” He can see Alex grinning widely, his hand still on Kyle’s back as he soothes him through his crisis.

 

“And Liz!” Kyle continues, oblivious. “She was wearing this gorgeous red dress, with her legs just, just...there! You know?” He finally focuses his dazed look back on Michael. “What else would you call that?”

 

“Something I never needed to hear in my entire life?” Michael offers. “Please don’t talk that way about Max or Liz to me ever again. I may never recover.”

 

Kyle swallows and nods once. Daisy sits up to lick his cheek, then jumps down to settle on the porch next to Michael. “Sorry. I just...was thrown for a loop and I didn’t…” He sits back and looks Michael up and down, half stretched out as he is in front of them on the porch, then over to Alex. “Shit, did I interrupt date night?”

 

Alex opens his mouth to answer but Michael beats him to it, shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it, man.” Then, against his better judgment, but because Valenti means something important to Max, Liz, and Alex, he says, “Did you get a chance to eat before the seduction started in earnest?”

 

Kyle shrugs. “Not really? We were in the middle of eating our salads when Max blurted out that they wanted to date me, and I left for some space to think before the chicken was ready.” Michael snorts because, yeah, that sounds like Max.

 

Michael locks eyes with Alex and raises his eyebrows in question. Alex’s lips twitch, but he rolls his eyes and nods his head towards the front door. Michael nods, claps his hands together, and says, “Alright. I’ll start on dinner while you guys sort this out. Come on, Daisy!” He stands up and starts heading for the door, Daisy trotting behind.

 

“Wait,” Valenti says. “I’ll go. You don’t have to--”

 

Michael flips him off from over his shoulder as he continues into the house, saying, “Shut up, Valenti.” When he digs into Alex’s fridge he takes out ingredients for a dinner for three.

 

/

 

A few days later he’s sitting on a bench in the park with Alex, laughing at possibly the dumbest joke in all of existence, but it came from Alex, so he loves it. His phone buzzes with a text that makes him freeze in place when he pulls it out of his pocket.

 

“What is it?” Alex says, eyes darting between the phone and Michael’s eyes.

 

Michael makes an uncertain sound in his throat and tilts his head a little. “I’m not sure.” He holds the phone out for Alex to read.

 

[From: Fuck That Guy] (5:54 pm): Are you free this Friday, Guerin?

 

Alex laughs and rolls his eyes as he passes the phone back to Michael. “I’m no genius, but it sounds like maybe he wants to hang out on Friday.”

 

Michael narrows his eyes and says, “With me?”

 

Alex leans over to look at the message again and makes a sound of confirmation. “Guerin is your name, last time I checked.”

 

“Why?” he says, shaking his head. He can’t think of anything he’s done that would possess Valenti to  _ want _ to spend time with him.

 

Alex rolls his eyes and points down to his phone. “You could, I don’t know, ask him?”

 

Michael makes a sound of disbelief even as he takes his advice.

 

[To: Fuck That Guy] (5:59 pm): Why? What do you want?

 

Valenti replies quickly. Suspiciously quickly.

 

[From: Fuck That Guy] (6:00 pm): There’s a biomed lecture Friday afternoon at UNM. Thought you might be interested. [Link: UNM School of Medicine Upcoming Events]

 

“What?” Michael says, shaking his head even as he opens the link to look at the details of the lecture.

 

“What?” Alex says, sounding close to laughing.

 

Michael grunts and waves him off as he replies.

 

[To: Fuck That Guy] (6:02 pm): You do know your girlfriend has multiple biomed degrees, right? Why don’t you take her? 

 

“He wants to invite me to a lecture on Friday at UNM?” he tells Alex, baffled.

 

Alex just hums noncommittally while Michael watches Kyle type his reply.

 

[From: Fuck That Guy] (6:04 pm): 1) she’s not my girlfriend. We haven’t all had a chance to get together since...you know.

 

Michael does know. His third date with Alex was interrupted by ‘you know’.

 

[From: Fuck That Guy] (6:05 pm): 1a) I don’t want to be stuck in a car with her for six hours when we haven’t had a chance to settle things

 

“But you don’t mind being stuck in a car with  _ me _ for six hours?” Michael says to his phone, then he glances up at Alex. “When the fuck did we get that friendly?”

 

Alex just smiles and shakes his head at him, leaning over to watch the progress of the conversation.

 

[From: Fuck That Guy] (6:06 pm): 2) you are the only other person I know who would be interested in the lecture. So I just thought I’d ask.

 

More bubbles pop up, indicating he has more to say, and Michael waits a long time for a short message.

 

[From: Fuck That Guy] (6:09 pm): You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.

 

Michael looks over at Alex and sees him looking back, eyebrows raised. “You gonna go?”

 

Michael narrows his eyes at him. “Did you know about this?”

 

Alex makes a humming sound and says, “He may have asked me if I thought it would be a good idea.”

 

“Why?”

 

Alex shrugs. “He wants to get to know you better? But he also doesn’t want to spend six hours alone in a car with someone who legitimately hates him, so he was feeling you out through me.”

 

Michael makes a face at that. “But... _ why _ ?”

 

Alex rolls his eyes and lays his hand on Michael’s thigh. “Look, do you want to go or not? He’s not going to be offended if you say no, but you should probably let him know one way or the other.”

 

Michael narrows his eyes, searching Alex’s face for his thoughts on the matter, but he’s giving him a bland smile. His ‘I’m telling you I don’t have an opinion on this matter, but I  _ definitely _ have an opinion on this matter’ smile. Michael hates that smile. “Fine,” he says, looking back down at his phone.

 

[To: Fuck That Guy] (6:14 pm): Pick me up at 8.

 

/

 

They’re almost an hour into their drive and they’ve exchanged a dozen words at the most: Valenti’s cheerful morning greeting and Michael’s short grunt hello as he slipped into the passenger seat of Kyle’s car.

 

Valenti seems to have gotten the hint that Michael is not a morning person and has left him to drink his coffee in peace. The only sound to disrupt the quiet is the low hum of the radio and Valenti’s occasional tap-tap-tap on the steering wheel along to the beat. It would normally irritate the shit out of Michael, but Valenti’s taste in music isn’t terrible, so he’s mostly fine.

 

There’s a break in the music while ads play and Michael figures it’s as good a time as any to dive into whatever’s going on with him and Valenti today. “Why did you really invite me to go with you today?”

 

Valenti glances over at him and shrugs. “You mean aside from what I already said?” Michael nods and Valenti turns his gaze back to the road. “You’re important to Alex, who is important to me.” There’s a long pause before he clears his throat and says, a little more quietly, “You’re also important to Liz and Max.”

 

Michael crosses his arms over his chest and smirks over at him. “So is this like, you trying to get my permission or something?”

 

Kyle scoffs and sends him a look that says, ‘As if,’ before focusing on the road again. “I just thought it would be nice to get to know each other a little better, since we have so many people in common.”

 

Michael shrugs and says, “I guess that’s fair. Where do you want to start?”

 

/

 

The rest of the drive to UNM is Michael’s  _ literal _ definition of hell, and he’s had a deep-abiding fear of alien vivisection since he was a child. Finding a topic to talk about is excruciating, mostly because they don’t have a lot of overlapping interests. There is also the fact that Valenti is trying so damn  _ hard _ to be friendly that it makes Michael want to wreck the car to put them both out of their misery.

 

They hit on a decent enough topic just as they are getting to campus and it takes them through their lunch and up to the start of the lecture.

 

“He’s Steve’s oldest friend, literally! He deserves to--”

 

“What, so just because Sam only became friends with him once he was out of the ice, that makes their friendship somehow  _ less _ ?” Michael interrupts, glaring at Kyle.

 

Valenti rolls his eyes. “That’s not what I meant. I just meant that, with Steve...gone, Bucky deserves to carry that link to him now. He’s been through a lot, and he should have something of Steve’s to carry with him through the next fight.”

 

Michael turns sideways in his seat to better face him when he says, “Yeah, Bucky’s been through 70 years of  _ torture _ at the hands of HYDRA; don’t you think he deserves to live out the rest of his life without Cap’s legacy weighing him down?”

 

Valenti’s eyes narrow and he shakes his head. “So the shield ‘weighs Bucky down’, but it doesn’t overshadow Sam and the name he’s made for himself as an Avenger in his own right? How does that make sense?” The lights in the auditorium start to dim. 

 

Michael lowers his voice. “It’s different for Sam. There’s less negative baggage associated with the shield for him. It’s more like...carrying on a legacy.”

 

Kyle nods his head in agreement and whispers, “I’ll agree there’s less baggage for Sam, but Bucky deserves the chance to…” He winces and continues with, “I don’t want to say ‘atone’ for the things he did as the Winter Soldier---”

 

Michael shakes his head, “Yeah, because none of that was really his fault, but I get what you’re saying. To him, he has a lot to make up for. He’s still carrying around some of that  _ super unnecessary _ guilt.”

 

“Exactly!” Kyle says, smiling over at him.

 

Michael’s lips twitch, but he just shakes his head and turns back in his seat to face the front of the auditorium as someone walks up on stage. He can’t resist getting out one last thing before the lecture starts, though, so he leans closer to Kyle and hisses, “But I still think Steve made the right choice.”

 

Kyle elbows him hard in the ribs and shakes his head, biting his lip to keep from replying. Michael grins and turns his attention up to the speaker.

 

/

 

They don’t actually get back to their argument because they spend the ride back to Roswell discussing the lecture and brainstorming ideas they can use in their research into the aliens’ biology. Kyle drops him off at Alex’s and they spend long enough in the driveway, still talking, that Alex steps out onto the porch with Daisy to wait for him.

 

Michael says goodbye and hops out, waving as Kyle backs out. He greets Alex with a quick kiss and says, “Thanks for watching Daisy for me.”

 

Alex’s lips quirk and he shrugs. “No problem. Did you have fun?”

 

Michael pauses in the middle of shaking his head in an automatic reply. “Yes?”

 

Alex clears his throat and suppresses his smile. “You don’t seem too sure about that.”

 

“Mostly I’m just shocked I couldn’t say ‘no’ outright,” Michael admits, wrapping his arm across Alex’s lower back to lead him back into the house.

 

Alex laughs and leans into him. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t have a terrible time today, Michael.”

 

/

 

[To: Valenti] (9:45 pm): I don’t think Alex has seen anything past Avengers in the MCU.

 

[From: Valenti] (9:48 pm): Dude. We need to rectify this situation immediately.

 

[To: Valenti] (9:50 pm): We could do Phase 2 in one long day, but Phase 3 would take a weekend.

 

[From: Valenti] (9:51 pm): We could do a movie a night for the next week and do Phase 3 next weekend?

 

[To: Valenti] (9:53 pm): I’ll talk to Alex and let you know.

 

[From: Valenti] (9:55 pm): Sounds good.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm running out of steam with this series, so if you guys have any suggestions about stories that could fit into this series, I would not be opposed to hearing about it! Send suggestions in the comments, or hit me up on tumblr (islndgurl777).
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
